Leicester City vs. Tottenham Hotspur
Venue: King Power Stadium
Kick off: 3PM
A place in the top four of the Premier League table is up for grabs when Tottenham Hotspur travel to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City this afternoon.
Brendan Rodgers’s men thumped Aston Villa 4-2 in their most recent match, while the Lilywhites dented Manchester City’s title chances with a 1-0 win in North London.
No fewer than three Leicester City new boys made their Premier League debuts during the Foxes’ battle with Aston Villa, and while one of them in Harry Souttar scored an unfortunate own goal, their other two January signings made telling contributions in a thrilling win.
While left-back Victor Kristiansen winning all eight of his duels before celebrating with his family, Tete scored Leicester’s third goal of the contest following strikes from Kelechi Iheanacho and James Maddison, and Dennis Praet put the cherry on top late on.
With two wins and a draw to boast from their last three contests in all tournaments, things are suddenly looking up for Rodgers and co, whose newfound taste for goals has propelled them up to 14th in the table and three points clear of the relegation zone.
There is certainly still some work to do for Leicester to put their demotion fears to bed once and for all, but Rodgers’s side are undoubtedly heading in the right direction – six goals in two top-flight fixtures with Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion is evidence of that.
However, Leicester have taken just one point from their last 12 on offer at the King Power Stadium – failing to score in three before putting two past Brighton – but Spurs’ well-drilled defence will fear no attack after keeping the Premier League champions at bay.
The late, great Jimmy Greaves is no longer around to see his long-standing Tottenham goalscoring record be broken, but his family affirmed that the Lilywhites’ second-highest scorer of all time would have been delighted to see his tally of 266 strikes surpassed by Harry Kane.
Clearly not learning their lessons from January’s match at the Etihad Stadium, Man City – who did manage to win that game 4-2 – were punished for errors at the back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg intercepted a pass and set up Kane for his 267th Spurs goal on the 15-minute mark, and City could not respond in a match that delighted Arsenal fans as much as it did their bitter rivals.
Led by Cristian Stellini as Antonio Conte recovered from gallbladder surgery in his native Italy, Tottenham put on a defensive display that would have left the latter beaming with pride, and he is now back at Hotspur Way and expected to return to the dugout at the King Power Stadium.
Three points for the fifth-placed Lilywhites will see them break into the Champions League places above Newcastle United – who are involved in Saturday’s evening kickoff at Bournemouth – and Conte returns to a Tottenham side who have three successive wins and three successive clean sheets to boast in all tournaments.
Scoring 12 goals in their last five Premier League away games is also a recipe for success for Tottenham, who thumped Leicester 6-2 in North London five months ago thanks to a 13-minute Son Heung-min hat-trick, while forgotten man Steven Bergwijn was the last-minute hero in a dramatic 3-2 win at the King Power last term.
Leicester City possible XI: Ward, Castagne, Souttar, Faes, Kristiansen, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Tete, Maddison, Barnes, Iheanacho.
Tottenham Hotspur possible XI: Forster, Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Emerson, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Perisic, Kulusevski, Kane, Son.
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